{"id":4007,"date":"2017-03-10T10:28:37","date_gmt":"2017-03-10T10:28:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rsoftsolution.com\/blog\/chinese-dating-app-momo-sees-record-revenue-growth-thanks-to-live-streaming.html"},"modified":"2017-03-10T10:28:37","modified_gmt":"2017-03-10T10:28:37","slug":"chinese-dating-app-momo-sees-record-revenue-growth-thanks-to-live-streaming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rbsitsoftwaresolution.in\/blog\/chinese-dating-app-momo-sees-record-revenue-growth-thanks-to-live-streaming.html","title":{"rendered":"Chinese dating app Momo sees record revenue growth thanks to live streaming"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s note: This post originally appeared on TechNode<\/a>, an editorial partner of TechCrunch based in China.<\/em><\/p>\n

Momo, China\u2019s top location-based social networking app, has continued its impressive user growth from last year<\/a>\u00a0and added solid financial figures to back it up, according its most recent earnings report. The company, which was previously backed\u00a0by Alibaba, went public when it\u00a0listed on Nasdaq\u00a0in December 2014<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The firm\u2019s revenue recorded a significant 524 percent year-on-year jump to $246.1 million in Q4 last year, while its\u00a0annual revenue soared 313 percent to reach\u00a0$553.1 million. Momo reported a non-GAAP earning per share of $0.44 in Q4 and $0.87 for the financial year.<\/p>\n

Away from the financials,\u00a0Momo\u2019s monthly active users reached 81.1 million as of\u00a0December 2016 from 69.8 million a year previous. That jump is rebounding to the kind of numbers it record in early 2015 when the service reached peak popularity. That\u2019s an impressive comeback considering the company began seeing stagnant active user growth in H2 2015.<\/p>\n

Momo previously said\u00a0slowing smartphone sales and a lack of software updates were\u00a0the reason for the stagnation, but its focus on new business areas \u2014 and particularly live streaming \u2014 have helped reinvent the company and its app among Chinese users.<\/p>\n

From location-based\u00a0dating to social entertainment<\/h2>\n

Momo is certainly not aiming to become a live streaming company even though that side of its\u00a0business now represents nearly 80\u00a0percent of its revenue. Rather, the company has evolved from a simple location-based feature that helps people discover new relationships to take on different kinds of entertainment.<\/p>\n

Today, it is a platform that accommodates a variety of different social and entertainment use cases, including one-on-one communication, group chats, social postings of\u00a0various formats, and of course, live broadcasting and short videos.<\/p>\n

Live streaming drives growth<\/h2>\n

Momo has recorded profit for eight consecutive quarters, but 2016 was\u00a0the real start point for its rocket-like growth. Like many other social networking services in China<\/a>, live streaming was\u00a0the significant boost\u00a0for its business, generating $194.8 million revenue during\u00a0Q4 alone. Since it was added\u00a0to the Momo service\u00a0in Q3 2015, live streaming has taken an increasingly larger share of Momo\u2019s revenue stream to the point that it is now dominant today.<\/p>\n

Live streaming alone isn\u2019t a money spinner, that\u2019s where the business mode comes into play.\u00a0Virtual gift-based live video streaming has become\u00a0highly profitable in China<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 that\u2019s to say that user buy small \u2018virtual\u2019 items that they send to their favorite streamers to get attention, convey their gratitude, etc.\u00a0Momo\u2019s live video streaming business adopted a similar commercialization model in which\u00a0the platform enables viewers to buy virtual gifts for singers,\u00a0with the revenue split between the broadcaster and Momo.<\/p>\n

For now, it has focused on its own user base but there are grander plans to expand the platform\u2019s reach.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe we are still early in the monetization process and have many opportunities to drive further growth year\u2026 In 2016, we have primarily relied on converting existing Momo users onto the live streaming service. In December 2016, the service covered around 23 percent of the daily active users for the main application. In 2017, we plan to expand the user acquisition effort beyond the Momo platform,\u201d said company CEO Tang Yan in the earnings conference call.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Momo 2016 revenue break down (unit: 10k USD) (Image credit: Sina Tech)<\/em><\/p>\n

Social networking, marketing, and gaming<\/h2>\n

The rest of the company\u2019s annual revenue was primarily derived from membership fees on the dating side of its business, gifting on its\u00a0social network and\u00a0marketing and gaming income.<\/p>\n

Value-added service revenues from their social network, which totaled $19.1 million in Q4 2016, mainly consisted\u00a0membership subscription revenues and virtual gift revenues. The firm cites the increase of premium VIP users and total users as well as virtual gift service as the reason.<\/p>\n

Mobile marketing revenues recorded a 29 percent annual growth to $19.7 million in Q4 2016, mainly driven by more new customers and orders introduced by sales agents, as well as the increase of eCPM (effective cost per mille) of the in-feed advertisement service.<\/p>\n

Momo\u2019s mobile gaming unit has been growing quickly thanks to several big titles like hard-core game Momo Craft and Momo Fight the Landlord. Momo doubled down on this in 2016 as it retreated from a previous joint venture on game publishing in favor of in-house development. The effect of this strategy was\u00a0evident as\u00a0its mobile game revenue surged 45 percent year-on-year\u00a0to reach $11.3 million in Q4 2016.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Featured Image: Ismagilov<\/a>\/Shutterstock<\/small><\/p>\n

Article source: http:\/\/feedproxy.google.com\/~r\/techcrunch\/social\/~3\/e2GuUOCNfqY\/<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s note: This post originally appeared on TechNode, an editorial partner of TechCrunch based in China. Momo, China\u2019s top location-based social networking app, has continued its impressive user growth from <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[10,7,14,15,6,12,11],"class_list":["post-4007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-update","tag-computer-news","tag-downloads","tag-microsoft-download-news","tag-networking-updates","tag-technology-update","tag-wordpress-plugin-download","tag-wordpress-theme-download"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t